Fortunately there are facts in plenty which answer these questions. There never was a period in the world’s history in which greater progress was made toward modifying--if not actually eliminating--the burdens that have caused so much misery to the poor. You must remember, John, that the evils against which Socialists inveigh so bitterly are not new evils. They had their origin generations ago; they have been promoted by the sophistical theories of Economic Liberalism; and, if they now seem more indefensible than they did to our grandfathers and great-grandfathers, it is because our intenser conceptions of the ideals of human brotherhood compel us to view life with closer scrutiny. In truth, while the indictment of Socialism is warranted in one sense of the word, it is by no means entirely justified. If we were doing nothing to improve conditions for the workers and for the relief of the poor, the outlook would be a hopeless one; but, when we realize that, while Socialism itself is doing practically nothing but denouncing and slandering society (where it does not actually oppose our reform measures), we are working steadily toward the solution of our social problems, we can see good reason to believe that our civilization is far from being the failure it has been pictured. No better evidence of the extent of the world’s material progress can be found than in labor’s advancement during the past century. To-day, there is still much to be done before we can attain the ideal embodied in the expression, “a fair day’s pay”; yet it is interesting to note that we should have to go back no further than the first quarter of the eighteenth century to find an Act of the Court of Massachusetts under which employers could adopt a maximum wage schedule. In a word, this law prevented an employer from giving more than the specified sum per day; yet no effort was made to prevent him from paying the lowest wages for which a laborer could be induced to work. Between this condition and the minimum wage agitation with which we are now familiar, there is a contrast that speaks eloquently in evidence of our social progress. In England, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the situation of labor was worse than it has ever been in this country. Forbidden by law to establish any safeguard in the form of organization for his own protection, the employe was absolutely at the mercy of his employer. The result was a condition of affairs that was barbaric. If the employer paid the rate of wage agreed in money, or even in “truck,” he was under no further legal responsibility; and, as the introduction of improved machinery in many trades was beginning to make it possible for women and children to perform the duties which hitherto had fallen only upon men, an employer was able to make the worker accept terms that made proper sustenance impossible.